Any theories on why Disney poorly maintains many of their rides?

[xdan0920]

Ah, yes. The classic "its your fault I don't like how Disney World is managed". Look, I care about what works. But seriously, what do you think is better? Closing down the ride, forcing people who have waited potentially an hour or more to get out of line without riding and telling people who made a fastpass for it two months ago that, sorry, the thing that reserved you a spot on this ride? Yeah, you can't use it. A single animontronic in the background isn't waving his arm in time with the rest of them so we're closing it down for repairs. Or instead, whoever is in charge of ride shutdowns realizing that the enjoyment of the ride does not hinge on every single animontronic working perfectly and lets it keep running?

What are you talking about? Who said anything like what you just said. This thread is about attraction maintenance. It's not about shutting down rides in the middle of the day. It's about fixing broken effects. Disney does not bother to fix them because of guests like you. That's not an opinion. It's a fact.

 

[Shouldigo12]

What are you talking about? Who said anything like what you just said. This thread is about attraction maintenance. It's not about shutting down rides in the middle of the day. It's about fixing broken effects. Disney does not bother to fix them because of guests like you. That's not an opinion. It's a fact.

Are they supposed to fix them while guests are riding?

 

[xdan0920]

Are they supposed to fix them while guests are riding?

no? You are being willfully obtuse. Enjoy dizzy werld

 

[Shouldigo12]

no? You are being willfully obtuse. Enjoy dizzy werld

So...when? Not every problem is fixed over night.

 

[marni1971]

Ah, yes. The classic "its your fault I don't like how Disney World is managed". Look, I care about what works. But seriously, what do you think is better? Closing down the ride

I think infrequent visitors, myself included, would rather not have an entire attraction shut down (thus missing it entirely) vs. a few effects I may or may not notice anyway.

80% ish of issues can be fixed with no downtime.

 

[marni1971]

What are the issues on SSE and Space Mountain? I just rode SM for the first time in years the other day so don't know what it should be like.

I wrote a list in another thread recently.... in brief

Queue displays not lit / poorly lit
Load displays broken
Load ceiling laser projections broken
Lift displays broken
Lift control room lighting broken
Alpha lift wall lighting broken
Omega lift wall lighting partly working
Lift displays broken
All star projectors and gobo projections immobile
Most Ride off ride sound fx down
Off ride music indistinct still
Re entry tunnel audio still out of sync

And it was like this for three weeks. A lot of the issues listed are over a year old.

That’s just what I’m aware of as a guest. Why should I have to tell the company what’s wrong with their rides? There should be regular rides by cast, faults logged, then fixed. I can say that Tower faults are logged, reported and then sat on.

My wife rode ToT a few weeks back and said that their drop sequence paused at the top (with the doors open) for several seconds. I have not experienced that in years. Is that part of one of the sequences? (I dont know the names of them)

It could be the profile with the VVC shaker didn’t shake (it happens) - if this happened then you’ll just sit there looking out of the open doors.

 

[WallyWorld]

80% ish of issues can be fixed with no downtime.

Well....that's a little different then. I stand corrected.

Thx

 

[Jedi Stitch]

I think most people have a favorite ride. On the favorite or even a few favorite rides, the little things are noticed because you ride as many times you can when you go to the park. On those rides, I would notice things that should be that are not. On the rides I don't ride as often, I probably wont notice all the little nuances. From what I can see on the many posts are that obvious and constant parts are missing. So even to the casual observer who rode the ride years ago, you don't know what it it, but something was under whelming about the ride from when you rode it last. After going to WDW in 16 and DL this August, I noticed the differences in rides between the parks. I also noticed the maintenance on some rides were lacking.
I don't know which is worse, Seeing the ride go to a miserable state do to budget cuts, or seeing your most absolute favorite ride be maintained but also upgraded, changed and go PC.

 

[danlb_2000]

So...when? Not every problem is fixed over night.

So you are saying if an animatronic breaks on a ride and can't be fixed overnight, then it should just never be fixed? We are not talking about things that have been broken for a couple days, there are things that have been broken for a long time and still not been fixed.

 

[Naplesgolfer]

Ah, yes. The classic "its your fault I don't like how Disney World is managed". Look, I care about what works. But seriously, what do you think is better? Closing down the ride, forcing people who have waited potentially an hour or more to get out of line without riding and telling people who made a fastpass for it two months ago that, sorry, the thing that reserved you a spot on this ride? Yeah, you can't use it. A single animontronic in the background isn't waving his arm in time with the rest of them so we're closing it down for repairs. Or instead, whoever is in charge of ride shutdowns realizing that the enjoyment of the ride does not hinge on every single animontronic working perfectly and lets it keep running?

It's possible that some repairs could be done after the park closes. Night shift. I think poor budget choices are more likely the cause in many cases.

 

[Shouldigo12]

So you are saying if an animatronic breaks on a ride and can't be fixed overnight, then it should just never be fixed? We are not talking about things that have been broken for a couple days, there are things that have been broken for a long time and still not been fixed.

No. Rides have scheduled maintenance periods. If the can't be fixed overnight, they should be fixed then.

 

[danlb_2000]

No. Rides have scheduled maintenance periods. If the can't be fixed overnight, they should be fixed then.

But there are things that aren't even being fixed "then".

 

[Shouldigo12]

It's possible that some repairs could be done after the park closes. Night shift. I think poor budget choices are more likely the cause in many cases.

Not every problem can be fixed overnight, though. If they can, yes, I believe they should do that. I think that post was probably too heated. Usually I take ten minutes or so before I post, so my reply isn't a rambling mess of annoyance and I can think my points through haha. But I didn't do that here so I think I came off way angrier than I wanted too. Anyway, I think people tend to expect too much from the parks. All problems should be fixed ASAP, but there are some that take time. There Will be animontronics that need more than one night to fix. I think its much better to understand that and not sweat a few things not working perfectly than be upset because the rides can't have every part working all the time.

P.S. in the note of being more...intense than I wanted, I apologize to Dan. I should have kept my cool a bit better.

 

[Shouldigo12]

But there are things that aren't even being fixed "then".

Can you give some examples? I know the yet is one thats never fixed (can it even be fixed? I feel like someone once said on here its unfixable and too hard to replace, but I'm not 100% sure on that), but I've never heard of any others.

 

[EagleScout610]

Disney clearly has the money to maintain their rides but in many instances does not. They leave many things broken and wait far to long between overhauls.I wonder if it's not partly do to some internal struggle for funding between different departments. I really find it odd that TDO spends billions on new hotels and infrastructure to draw and funnel guest's to the parks and then don't maintain the attractions the people are coming to experience.
Any Theories ??

 

[Chef Mickey]

Pretty much money. They know what’s wrong. They are told what’s wrong. Cast report what’s wrong. They’re just selective in what’s repaired. Show quality wise Tower is bad but better than it was. SSE has some serious issues. Space Mountain is current abysmal.

What happened to the new leadership in Tomorrowland that was supposed to give a darn? Seems like that came up a couple years ago.

 

[marni1971]

What happened to the new leadership in Tomorrowland that was supposed to give a darn? Seems like that came up a couple years ago.

I wish I knew. It was good whilst it lasted.

 

[Phonedave]

Disney clearly has the money to maintain their rides but in many instances does not. They leave many things broken and wait far to long between overhauls.I wonder if it's not partly do to some internal struggle for funding between different departments. I really find it odd that TDO spends billions on new hotels and infrastructure to draw and funnel guest's to the parks and then don't maintain the attractions the people are coming to experience.
Any Theories ??

Without getting too deep into Business 101, money is not money, especially when you get to a corporation the size (and the number of influential stockholders) that TWDC has.

Salary money (paying staff) is different from benefit money (insurance and pensions) is different from capital money (buying new things),is different from operational expenses (running those new things you bought with capital) which is different from maintenance expense (fixing the broken capital items).

Just because you have money in one bucket does not mean you can (from a business planning perspective) use it in an other bucket. Moving money from one operational company to an other at a fiduciary level can also be an accounting (and sometimes legal) nightmare.

When a company spends money on capital, The Street wants to see an ROI on that capital. Likewise, the opex and maintenance expense for a given level of capital spend needs to be in balance. These factors also impact both long term and short term financing rates. TWDC carries quite a bit of debt, on the order of $20-$25B. It has roughly a 55% debt to equity ratio.

The upshot of all of this is, you can't just say "look at all of the money the parks mark, they are just to cheap to keep things repaired. There are reasons that they do not repair things, beside just pinching pennies.

That is not to say I agree with the policy, or that i give them a pass. I understand what they are doing- taking advantage of the currently low costs to borrow to expand and buy up properties what the getting is good before the market tanks (and it is close to tanking, but that's a different story)

 

[JIMINYCR]

A question for anyone in the know? Apparently the maintennance crew isnt doing their job fixing the list of things that are blatently apparent to everyone. We are told that the parks budget has limited money allocated for repairs. It there is personnel who are being paid to do repairs, what is the number of staff being paid to do these types of repairs and what are they doing all day if not doing repairs?

 

[geekza]

I think it's a combination of factors. How many skilled workers do they have at any given time who can work on repairs? It's likely they have folks who are skilled in different aspects of maintenance and repair, rather than a Fix-It Felix (see what I did there?) who can do everything well. These folks have a lot of different attractions for which they are responsible and the work has to be prioritized. Safety is going to come before "show." Also, they have to look at the amount of work that each repair or bit of maintenance requires. Longer repairs are more likely to result in downtime for the attraction. Even if a repair is fairly minor, it is going to cost some money and their maintenance budget has to go toward a lot of attractions. It was easier, back in the day, when WDW only had a single park, to make sure that everything was constantly in tip-top condition. They've simply gotten too large for that to happen any more. It definitely has a detrimental effect to the level of quality in the parks, but it isn't going to change anytime soon. I think in most cases, they let things pile up and wait for a scheduled refurb that may or may not happen when it was originally scheduled. Kick the can down the road, so to speak. The only solution is to pour more money into staffing and maintenance budgeting, but that is definitely not going to happen while they're in the midst of so much construction. The result is that an attraction either 1) keeps falling apart until it becomes a safety issue, 2) keeps falling apart until it becomes a major PR issue 3) keeps falling apart until it develops a reputation as a "lame" attraction and goes on the chopping block, 4) enough of the attraction still functions to the point that most guests don't care, or 5) it lucks out and finally ends up at the top of the list for maintenance and repair. Obviously, the last outcome is the preferable one, but these days it also seems to be the least-likely outcome.

I'm incredibly relieved that SSE has finally been given the go-ahead for a major refurb, rather than a full replacement. I'm sorry that my wife won't get to experience it under optimum operation when she rides it for the first time, but the knowledge that improvements are on the horizon will definitely help me be more forgiving of its current state.